Kagan on religious freedom

During her confirmation hearings, Supreme Court justice nominee Elena Kagan had this to say about the religion clause:

In general, I think, what both First Amendment clauses are designed to do – and this is the way in which they work hand in hand with each other – what they’re both designed to do is to ensure that you have full rights as an American citizen.

You are a part of this country, no matter what your religion is, and to ensure that religion just never functions as a way to put people, because of their religious belief or because of their religious practice, at some disadvantage with respect to any of the rights of American citizenship. So, I think that that’s the sort of overall purpose of both parts of the amendment.

Our national celebration of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is just days away. Let us know your thoughts on religious liberty in America — if you agree with Kagan or not — in the Houston Belief forums.

11 Responses

If I’m interpreting Kagan’s words correctly: “. . . you have full rights as an American citizen. You are a part of this country, no matter what your religion is, and to ensure that religion just never functions as a way to put people, because of their religious belief or because of their religious practice, at some disadvantage with respect to any of the rights of American citizenship” – then I agree with her.

The interpretation of our laws has become too “sensitive.” For example, I was disheartened by the rulings and follow-on events that led to the enclosure of a cross that had been erected as a memorial to WWII vets (this took place in California, if memory serves).

But it is not because I view this particular incident as some type of affront to Christians or Christianity, but rather because I view the cross in a broader context that simply as a Christian symbol. In this particular context, in my view, it represents the deep respect that Americans in general have for those who served our country during WWII. It would be the same if the symbol in question were a Star of David, for example.

Your freedom of religion ends where my civil rights as an American citizen begin. You can practice whatever religious belief you like, but when your religious beliefs cause you to violate or deny another America the same equal rights and protections that you enjoy and the Constitution guarantees them you have crossed a line that is unacceptable. It also makes you a hypocrite of the worst kind.

From the Declaration of Independence – “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Our Creator (that being God Almighty to our Founding Fathers and men of faith) is the SOURCE of our rights, NOT the government, NOT the Constitution, NOT the Bill of Rights, NOT your fellow man. The Constitution and Bill of Rights are merely a written documentation of the rights endowed by our Creator. The government, instituted among men, is established to PROTECT those rights.

Kagan will be a disaster for the US Supreme Court….we can find better than her.

It seems that CoolGayDad is one of those perpetually “offended” people who look for battles with those with whom he disagrees. No one EVER guaranteed anyone the right to NOT be offended by something. Liberals pretend to be tolerant but they are THE most intolerant people ever put on this earth.